Surrey County Council has abandoned a scheme to change the parking for the parade of shops situated in Oriental Road after 420 people signed letters and petitions protesting against the proposals. The parking area allowing up to 16 cars to park diagonally would have been reduced to eight parallel parking spaces in proposals drawn up by the council. The proposed changes were part of a wider scheme that aims to improve road safety in the one-way system in Oriental Road, White Rose Lane and Heathside Crescent. These include reducing the number of lanes from two to one to allow for a cycle path and increasing the number of zebra crossings. But after much public protest the parking proposals were removed from the plans. The subsequent designs were viewed and discussed at the county council’s local transport committee for Woking on Thursday. Borough councillor for Mount Hermon East David Bittleston said: “There was very short notice for opinions on this plan. Taking into consideration the post, people were given about a week to respond.” A letter warning people of the plans was sent out by the council on September 12 and a response was required by September 24. Cllr Bittleston was concerned that the proposals could result in traffic jams, particularly during rush hour. He said: “This is the only road in and out of our hub station on the south side. If we mess around with that we could get it wrong.We should consult wider as it affects a lot more people than just those living in the area.” SL Sood of Sood’s convenience store and Vincent Belvedere, owner of Vincent’s butcher shop in Oriental Road, welcomed the news regarding the car parking. Mr Sood said: “We would like to thank all those people who supported us in this. “The idea of reducing the number of lanes in the one-way system is crazy and I hope the council will carry out traffic surveys before it makes a decision.” The committee agreed to discuss the principles of the changes other than the parking in detail at a further meeting.